31 August 2015 - Los Guaricanos (Santo Domingo)

(Response to Dad's e-mail):

Highs in the 80s. Thats cute Dad. ;) That sounds pretty sweet! I´ll write more in the big letter, but don't worry, the hurricane was fine. Thats crazy that Nicole is in college. Everyone is so old now. I do enjoy extra scriptures to study! :) Love ya dad!!

(General e-mail):

So the Hurricane was lame. We went out and proselyted like normal in the morning, then got a call from the zone leaders saying that we needed to go back to the house. So, we did. And we stayed there...all day. It rained quite a bit and the wind was blowing pretty strong for a little bit, but it wasn´t bad. Oh well. The worst part was that we didn´t have power! Our inversor (giant house battery) died in the middle of the night so we were all dying without our fans. I barely slept. For the rest of the day we just slept, studied the scriptures etc. I worked on my doodle. It was really boring. Elder Maatatia (Matasia) is From Tarawa Kiripes (not sure on the spelling), a small island of Australia. He speaks spanish really well and a little English. He´s a really cool guy, but he eats a ton. My goodness, an entire Salami stick in one night almost.

So! Excting news! We have 5 baptismal dates! 4 from the same lesson! We went to teach Stiven ( the best investigator ever) and suddenly his sister Wanda, his brother Jeffrey, and their friend Niyeli (the Daughter of Yimmy and Yami if you remember them) were all there! We had intended to challenge Stivan, but ended up challenging them all! And they all said yes! We´re not so sure about the rest, but Stivan will definately be baptised. He´s come to church twice and he loves it. Loves everything about it. The 5th is an old guy named Amable. We started teaching him last week and while we´re pretty sure he doesn´t really understand why a baptism is so important, he is really interested. He´s really awesome and nice and he was taught by Missionaries a long time ago. We also have 5 new investigators: Frank, Ingrid, Ramona, Jorge and Inora. Jorge was at church on Sunday with his friend ( a member) and he said it was really interesting and wants to go next week too! Woo!

I feel like the Senior companion now cus I know the area and all the people. It´s a bit strange. Anyway. Love you all! We´re all safe and sound here in the DR.

Goodbye Elder Bateman. Off to Punta Cana to talk with rich people.

The new guys...and Jefferson. Elders Maatatia, Vega, and Harris. Elder Harris is the New greeny.

My doodle has progressed.

24 August 2015 - Los Guaricanos (Santo Domingo)

Transfers! Well the good news for this week is that I´m staying, but the bad news is that Elder Batman is leaving. He´s being transfered to Punta Cana which is the rich are where people are "banished" to. The work there is super hard and that area doesn´t even get mail. Aaaaanyway. This week was rather long. One of the elders in our house, Elder Valdes went home today and he´s been rather dead all week. We had our last zone meeting this week and pretty much threw him a going away party. I have many pictures. haha Not alot else happened this week to be honest. We´re back down to 1 progressing investigator (Stiven) and we´re going to be asked him to be baptized this week. If you remember Eliaser ( the drunk kid who had a real interest) His grandma went a little nuts. She is very...very evangelical and spouted off to Eliaser about how we are of the Devil, believe in reincarnation, chop people up and worship Joseph Smith. Unfortunately, he believed her. We had a very long talk with him, but for now he just needs more time.

I had 3 full grown men tell me I was korean this week. Korean. I just about smacked the third one. We expect it from children who all think we´re chinese, but adults? come on guys. thats just sad. We also met a boy named Youtube. Yep, his Dad named him Youtube. Thats quality parenting right there.

We had some great contacts this week, but rather few lessons. Oh well. This week I´ll be working with my new companion who doesnt speak any english! But apparently he´s amazing. He´s from an Island near hawaii. The other elders are out of the house too. One went home and the crazy, annoying Dominican got transfered! No more raps about eating cereal, money and me singing like a dog. Whew. I will miss Elder Valdes though. Anyway, Love you all! Lots of pics this week!

Ah! how did i forget!!! We´ve got a Hurricane coming in tomorrow! Hurricane Danny. I´m kind of super excited, but It´ll probably die before it reaches us. Oh well, maybe next time. Its been over a hundred degrees in our house through most of this week as well, so thats fun. :P ok, Love you!

(Response to one of Dad's e-mails)
Thats odd. No, I dont have my pin and I never have. I cant use it like a credit card here because its super poor and nobody has a ....slider thing.. Only accept cash. Sorry. :/ I should be ok for a little bit though. Love you dad! I´m sorry if sometimes I sound whiney and judgey, but I´m really not. I do love these people. Its just hard when i see little kids chaining pregnant dogs to a tree so that they can throw rocks at it. Thats normal here and it breaks my heart. Satan definately has a strong hold here. But hey, thats what we´re here for.

This...is a fruit. Theyre super popular here. You pop in the middle part and suck on it. The Natives can have them in all day. Theyre not super great, but what ever. Also, we bought a ton of fresh mangos this week and have been churnin out the smoothies.

Goodbye house buddies. This is my new agenda. Decorated it myself.

I made some doodles. One to help me study.

17 August 2015 - Los Guaricanos (Santo Domingo)

Hullo!  Well this week was interesting.  I wish you guys could hear the thunder outside right now.  It sounds like just massive explosions. It´s SO loud!  Anyway, the week.  So Fausto and Demerris were supposed to get married today and they wanted Elder Bateman as the best man....but, they didn´t come to church or answer our calls so we had no idea what time it was or where to go!  We´re not even sure if theyre married!  Estivan isn´t progressing either because he always stays up suuuper late saturday night and is always asleep when we come to get him for church.  Eleser, the drunk kid we met in the street, seems to have a real interest, but his grandma, who is a staunch Evangelical, won´t let him come to church.  Apparently she thinks we´re the Devil or something.  Really nice lady though.  We talked to her actually before we met Eleser.  Well actually she did most of the talking.  Evangelicals are like that.  So yeah.  We had 2 investigators come to church yesterday...but we´re not actually teaching one of them because she want´s nothing from the missionaries.  The other is complicated.  Tania was married, but her husband left her a long time ago.  They never got a divorce however and now she is living in adultery with 2 kids and can´t get married because she has no idea where her husband is. She really likes the church and has friends here and everything, but she can´t progress until she gets a divorce. Oh well.  If its the Lords will then theres a way.

We found 5 new investigators this week...but we´re not sure any of them actually want to be taught.  If we end up keeping them i´ll tell you guys all about them though.

The best part of this week was we found out that almost all of the less actives we´ve been teaching have been reactivated! Yay!

The worst part was when we went out to teach with our ward mission leader.  Ugh.  We finished our first lesson with Maxima, a less active who really likes the gospel, but never goes to church.  Anyway, as soon as we left, Richard (our WML) turns to us and says, "that was the worst lesson i´ve ever been a part of."  Wow! Thanks Richard.  Then we walked along way to another less active and "taught" her.  Really it was just Richard and her interrupting us to laugh at things i didnt really understand.  Then we we left (now an hour late to our cita with Eleser. Thanks Richard) and he said "Well now I know why this ward won´t be getting any Baptisms." ..........so many words i wanted to say.  We missed our appointment, he made us talk to some frekas (girls who are a bit loose and hunt white men) and filmed one of our contacts.   The whole time he would stop and talk to friends or talk on his phone, making us late to everything! Ugh.  Ok, venting done.  I love you all and here are some pictures of our freshly cleaned house.  Well...I cleaned the bathrooms...I´m not actually sure if anyone else did anything except sweep a little.  The kitchens clean though. :P

Also, sorry if that email sounded a little negative.  From here on out I´m just gonna put happy stuff....The letters might be shorter. :P

This is our washing machine!  It is really quite terrible and inefficient, but its better that nothing!

Look! Our bathroom stuff is actually white now instead of yellow and black!

And this is my sweet tan line!  My watch somehow hasn´t gotten stolen yet so it continues to preserve a small part of my whiteness.

That tree is a Guanabana Tree.  Its fruit that tastes great as juice, but is like impossible to eat.

10 August 2015 - Los Guaricanos (Santo Domingo)

This week was better. We actually didn´t end up dropping anyone, but that was because nobody was around for us to drop! We went over to Jimmy and Jamy´s last night to drop them, but they were all super sick so we set up another appointment. We´ll see how that goes. Also, do you guys remember Fausto and Demeris? Well they didn´t come to church last week and we were kind thinking we might have to drop them too, but this sunday they came! And we didn´t have to call them or pass by their house or anything! And it was good because all of our other investigators that we passed for were still asleep. I was feelin pretty bumbed until we walked into the chapel and I saw them! Woo! Also, during sacrament, Fausto leans over to me and asks "Why aren´t I a baptized member?" Well good question Fausto! Probably cus your girlfriend is living with you and she´s crazy. I didn´t say that obviously, but we talked afterward and explained that we needed to teach him more. Estivan is still awesome, but he hasn´t come to church yet because he´s always asleep when we pass. All of our contacting and asking for references really turned up nothing until like thursday night. We were walking home when this drunk kid and his friends start yelling at us from the side of the road. We turn and say hi and start to walk away but he waves us over. We walk up to him and he says "I want to change my life. Are you guys Jehovas witnesses?" His friend behind says, "No they´re Mormons." The kid nods and gets a real serious look on his face and says again that he wants to change his life. We asked him if he was really serious and he nodded quite emphatically. He almost fell over in fact. So, we set up an appointment for the next day. I didnt get to go cus I was on splits but apparently it went really well. His name is Aliser. We stopped by his house yesterday and I saw his scriptures open on the table with the Plan of Salvation pamphlet open next to it. I was quite pleased and I´m pumped to actually teach him.

We talked to some more crazy people and that was kinda fun but I hate wasting so much time. My companion says we can´t just leave in the middle of their ramble though. I do believe thats it. We plan on getting some baptismal dates this week, so I´ll let you guys know how that goes next week! If I think of anything else I´ll write more!

(Response to Dad's e-mail):

A second Doctorate?? Thats crazy dad! I´m out of time, but wow!  Also, thats pretty toasty. Sounds like down here, especially with the rain.  Its hurricane season down here so we´ve gotten quite a bit.  Love you dad!  Not gonna lie, I wish I could help you with the lawn.  I miss grass that isnt 3 feet tall and covered in garbage. :P  Not important though! The work goes on! But really, I love you Dad.  Alot.  Good luck with all your school work and smart guy stuff.

3 August 2015 - Los Guaricanos (Santo Domingo)

Hello those who tune in to this regurarly scheduled program!  Remember how i said this week would be better? hahahaha well to quote Thorin Oakenshield, "Never have I been so wrong."  Our Numbers were down the toilet, all our citas fell through and we´re probably going to drop alooot of our investigators.  We only have one thats progressing and thats Estivan.  He is still amazing but all of our other investigators either want nothing to do with us or just refuse to keep commitments.  This coming week will be made up mostly of contacts and hopefully references.  We´re pretty much starting fresh.  It was rather discouraging.  BUT to quote a extremely popular saying here, "all things are possible with God."  Its at times like these when scriptures like Romans 8 and Alma 26:27 jump to mind.  Anyway, this week literally has to be better. :)

We had a TON of rain yesterday...which also ruined alot of our citas, but it was kinda fun.  It reminded me of Iowa.  I was on splits with the Ward mission leader and we had to walk for about a half an hour in the deluge.  It was a good time.  Oh! Fun fact, Dominicans are terrified of rain.  Whenever it rains, everyone disappears.  If it rains before church on sunday, no one will come.  Its because they only wash their hair like once a week (usually on friday so they can go party for the weekend) and theyre worried the rain will ruin it.  As a result most of the women wear these hair net things called "tubies" which hold in the rats nest. Anyway, i was walking with Richard, The ward mission leader, and he asked me if I wanted to stop.  I turned to him and said "Richard, are you going to let a little rain stop the work of the Lord?"  He stared at me for a sec then gave me a high five and started walking again.  Good times.  Thats about it for this week, I dont have any pictures unfortunately, but next week I will.  Have a great week everyone! Love you all!

Oh and Dad!  So if anyone wants to send packages, send them to the Mission Office.  I don´t know the adress.  Otherwise you can send them down through Florida which is great for Letters, but costs alot of money for packages, part of which has to be paid by me.  its alot safer though.  Also, you know how missionaries used to get the nice, embossed sciptures in their mission language?  Well no longer.  We get the cheap, paper back ones that are getting ruined in my bag. I have to buy my own and get scripture cases.  I´m just going to get my my triple rebound, but I´d like a Bible  with tabs.  Cases that are actually worth getting are around 100 dollars. I can definately wait on the cases, but I do need my PIN so I can withdraw money and afford to buy scripts and the new cover.

Also, I asked Elsa Greenwalt to talk to you guys about sending me a copy of The Lamb of God, because...I need music. haha.

for letters
Elder Christian Blake Frogley
Santo Domingo East mission
SDQ 4102
2250 NW 114th ave- unit 1A
Miami, FL 33172-3652

and for packages
Elder Christian Blake Frogley
Santo Domingo East mission
AP 000914
8532 NW 66th st.
Miami, FL 33166

Well apparently I have a bit more time, so lets add to the big letter!  Music here is...well...basura.  Its not music  Its pretty much just bass with a few words thrown in.  The favorites right now are Doobie, where the singer literally just says doobie over and over and thats the whole song.  Then theres the sound of the can.  Thats also the whole song with some really electric music garabage in the background.  Also, I need 10 women, and  "Beep bop, beep bop I am rich".  Thats the words for the whole song.  Makes me laugh.  The true king and ruler of both music and the country however is Romeo Santos.  My trainer has banned me from ever looking him up in my life, but everyone listens to him at some point during the day.  I dont think he´s that bad, but oh well.  I cant really understand what he sings, but it sounds ok. haha

Recently alot of power transformers have been blowing up and power is spotty all over my area.  There are tons of riots in the streets every night and we find burned tires and stuff everywhere.  Lets see...what else happened.  We had a barbecue. ha! To make the grill we took  the front, cover part of a fan, filled it with charcoal and tried to light it.  We have a video of all of us staning around the feintly glowing embers and desperately fanning the coals with plates.  It was fun.  We finally got our stipend back on schedule...ish this week so we could actually buy semi healthy food!  I actually eat (and kind of enjoy) alot of tomatoes and avacodos.  Shhh don´t tell Dad.  But mostly its rice and Salami, Cereal, eggs or sandwiches.  I´m actually working out pretty quite alot and its something i intend to do alot more of when i get back.  i´m lookin pretty healthy if i do say so.  Speaking of healthy.  This last week I got a nasty fungus thing all over my back.  It spread like over night and for the next few days I could barely move.  Everytime i´d shift of twist my back it felt like the skin was cracking.  I got some special soap and cream to get rid of it though and now its mostly cleared up.  What a great image right after talking about food...now I´m hungry.  We had a deep cleaning session in our bathrooms today ( and by we i mean I) and now all of our stuff is white...ish!  Better than the yellow and black it was before!  I scrubbed away generations of missionary hair and layers of shower and sink scum.  The ball of steel wool is practically destroyed and we´ve decided to burn the rags.  The toilet bowl is hopeless though.   Thank you for all your letters, thoughts and prayers.
I love you all!